Cationic polysaccharides have been used in many personal care applications, e.g. shampoos, shower gels, hair styling compositions, skin creams and lotions, where they provide rheological properties to the compositions and desirable properties to the hair and skin.
In most cases cationic polysaccharides used in personal care compositions are utilized as dry powders. However, handling of powders is often accompanied by dusting which can be a cause of health and safety problems. Moreover, in the case of cationic polysaccharides the dusting problem is particularly troublesome, because the cationic material tends to adhere strongly to anionic surfaces. Furthermore, particulate polysaccharides are known to lump excessively when added to water, resulting in low rates of solution, and so special care must be taken when adding these materials to water to avoid lumping and gel formation. Often unacceptable gel levels remain in these solutions. For these reasons there has been a desire to develop cationic polysaccharide products that are readily dispersible in aqueous media by dispersing them in liquids with which they are immiscible but which are useful in particular personal care applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,962 to Ahmed discloses particulate water-soluble polymers dispersed in liquid medium comprised of low molecular weight polyethylene glycol, water and high molecular weight polyethylene glycol. Dispersion of cationic polysaccharides is not disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,777 to Lundan et al. relates to slurries of carboxymethyl cellulose comprising: a) 10 to 60% of carboxymethyl cellulose, b) 40 to 60% of water-soluble polyethylene glycol, the average molecular weight of which is below about 1,000, and c) 1 to 50% of an inert powder or dispersion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,312 to Skaggs et al. discloses a polymeric fluid composition comprising: a) water-soluble polysaccharide, b) water-soluble polyethylene glycol or thickened polyethylene glycol, c) one or more viscosified polyol fluid components, and d) one or more viscosifying polysaccharides. The polysaccharides disclosed do not include cationic polysaccharides.
The solvation and solubility properties of various water-soluble polysaccharides can vary widely. Therefore, information on fluidized polymer suspensions of anionic and nonionic polysaccharides is of little utility in predicting what systems will be suitable for preparing fluidized polymer suspensions of cationic polysaccharides. For this reason, the fluidized polymer suspensions of cationic polysaccharides disclosed herein are novel in composition and in their use in preparing personal care compositions.